[SPOILERS]The 3 Muscateers playing Ragnar of Rome!

[Catwalk]

He's not that strong now, and we have a 20t NAP. By then Praetorians won't be much of a threat. He turned it down, though. Sareln also didn't get back to me about NAP and border agreements, so our prior agreements are still in effect.

[Catwalk]

t89 report

I closed borders with Azza last turn, as I'm making minimal gold on the trade routes and he's making a decent amount (especially now that Waterbat has closed borders with him). Unfortunately, I'd misread my agreement with him and we did indeed have binding OB So he sent me a complaint, and supplied the relevant e-mail when asked for it. I apologized and offered compensation of either 4 gold now or 15 gold in 10t. He accepted the 15 gold offer. Sucks a bit, but no biggie. I really need to get my diplo messages sorted out...

In other news, my empire is doing great!

I have a NW settler heading for the iron site and am building another settler in EE. Will probably build one in KK as well, expansion is still profitable even with few workers. Now up to 10 + 1 Fast Worker It still feels like enough though, especially with Hagia Sophia.

CC is receiving a whole bunch of grassland farms, preparing it to be my secondary GP and junk wonder farm. I'm ahead on score for the first time, mainly because of population and wonders.

Relations

Azza:
- NAP t99
- OB t99
- the western border site is mine until t99

Xenon:
- NAP t105
- don't think OB is binding, need to check
- neither one of us may settle between the iron tiles until t105
- offering him 3gpt for each turn he has closed borders with Azza and OB with me, not currently taking that

Waterbat:
- NAP t105
- offering him 3gpt for each turn he has closed borders with Azza and OB with me, he is currently taking that
- OB not binding
- no border agreement, but no contested sites between us (unless I want to build a galley and sneak a settler over to the jungle area)

Superjm:
- NAP t94
- no border agreement (still one island site available and the entire jungle area between us)
- OB not binding

Sareln:
- NAP 20t rolling
- border agreement secures me more than half of the jungle arm between us
- OB not binding

I think I'm starting to look like a runaway, I have the best demos and a very good REX wonder collection: GLH + Colossus + Hagia Sophia (I know it's not worth the investment, but it's not wasted hammers either) + MoM + AP (soon) + Taj Mahal (hopefully). I'm going to try to secure more NAPs soon, especially with Waterbat and Xenon.

Praetorians are starting to lose their allure, macemen might make an entrance soon if someone feels like going on the warpath. I'm rubbing borders with 4 out of 5 rivals now, so it'd be possible to bring an invasion force to my border cities pretty fast.

[Catwalk]

Greetings Xenon of the Ottoman empire.

We wish to make you the following separate proposals:
Either:

A)
- we gift you spices until t110
- you close borders with Azza until t110
- NAP extension until t110

Or:

B)
- we gift you spices until t110
- you gift us 4gpt until t110
- NAP extension until t110

Respectfully,
Catwalk of Rome

Getting an extra dye resource online soon, can offer Sareln the same deal.

[Catwalk]

Azza researched Music this turn and got the Great Artist. This is good news for me, I had no chance of competing for that GP anyway and I feel certain I can land Taj Mahal at normal speed now. It sucks that he will probably get Sistine Chapel, I could really use that. It would also be nice to be able to put another wonder in CC for the GPP, and I would be focusing Artist points there should I need one later. GPs used for GAs have to all be different, right? Superjm might have a shot at Taj Mahal too, I know that he has Civil Service.

If I had a chance, I'd be tempted to race to Music and use my GE to rush it. I'm behind Aesthetics (287) + Literature (191) and Music (574) = 1052 beakers. Nationalism will complete in 5t, and I will have a good amount of cash left over from that (186 gold at current levels, and my economy keeps rising). With a 25% bonus to beakers and a 10% conversion bonus on the 186 gold, it will take me around 3.4 turns. I may be able to squeeze that down to 3t, in which case Azza only has 8t to build it. Sadly, that's still realistic. 50 hpt on a doubler wonder is easily achieved in his capital, given its size and the 2.5 modifier (OR, Forge, marble). I have vision on most of his big cities, so I will keep a close eye on their production levels the next several turns. It will take him around 7t to build it without rushing it any, so he pretty much needs to start it right away.

Questions for xenu and cheetah:
1) If Azza doesn't start on SC right away, should I rush through to Music and burn a GE on it?
2) If Superjm looks like he's going for Taj Mahal (can spy on his cities to track production), should I burn the GE on it?

[slowcheetah]

Questions for xenu and cheetah:
1) If Azza doesn't start on SC right away, should I rush through to Music and burn a GE on it?
2) If Superjm looks like he's going for Taj Mahal (can spy on his cities to track production), should I burn the GE on it?

The Taj is definitely more important, I'd ignore sistines and tech to something that can hurt, possibly rifles, and then go and hit somebody. Probably Azza because he's the neighbour who looks the most dangerous.

[Catwalk]

I think Taj Mahal is safe though, I don't think Superjm will reach Nationalism before me. If that's the case, do you still think Sistine Chapel should be ignored? I'm already landing Apostolic Palace, so I will be building lots of monasteries and temples. Sistine Chapel will be +10 culture in all cities with both, that's huge for border control. Aesthetics is useless to me, but Literature is quite important for National Epic.

Other tech priorities for the foreseeable future (after Nationalism):

Feudalism 670
1 Longbowmen
0 Serfdom + Vassalage
Machinery 670
2 Crossbows (with Archery)
2 Macemen
0 Watermill + Windmill
Paper 574
2 University of Sankore
Construction 335
1 Bridge building
2 Catapults
0 Coloseum
Drama (with Aesthetics) 287
Theatre
Guilds (with Machinery + Feudalism) 958
Engineering (with Construction) 958
Compass 383

I have listed the benefits of each tech and assigned them a point value. 0 is useless, 1 is minor use, 2 is useful and 3 is great. I don't see anything great in the immediate future.

[Catwalk]

Diplomatically, I messed up a little:

Hello Catwalk of Rome,

proposal A) accepted. I have closed borders immediately and now remind you of the previous agreement.

Xenon of the Ottoman Empire

I previously offered Xenon that I'd pay him 3 gpt if he closed borders with Azza (and kept borders open with me). That was a standing offer, applying for 20t (until t105). As the message two posts ago shows, I recently made him an offer that he could have my spices if he either closed borders with Azza or gifted me 4 gpt. He shrewdly noticed the mistake in my offer, as I had no intentions of paying him twice for closing borders with Azza. I was tempted to correct this as I don't feel the agreement is 100% binding yet, but I decided to go ahead and let him have a small victory here. He's not a threat, and it's useful to have good relations with him. It's also useful to make Azza paranoid as 2 players have now closed borders with him in the span of 4 turns. His trade routes are definitely suffering as a result, I only wish I could close mine as well. I sent him the following:

Greetings Xenon

Acknowledged. The 3gpt agreement lasts until t105 and the spice agreement lasts until t110.

Respectfully,
Catwalk of Rome

This is a little more text than desired under the diplo rules, but I feel it's fair to clarify misunderstandings. The first draft said "I really didn't mean for that to happen, but I will hold my end of the deal anyway". He might have been annoyed by that, and even if he didn't it'd probably be too much text.

[Catwalk]

I'm up to 15 cities now and my expansion is limited only by hammers. I have another 11 sites planned:
2 in the jungle between me and Superjm
1 on the island
1 by the horses
2 by Azza
5 in the desert between me and Sareln

If I manage to land all of those, I will have taken land from all my rivals:
3½ sites from Superjm (2 on the island, 1½ in the jungle)
1 from Azza
½ from Waterbat
1 from Sareln
0 from Xeno

Superjm is going to be unhappy with me pretty soon, if he isn't already. I will need some updated military tech soonish. Catapults, Macemen and Longbowmen ought to be able to handle anything that is thrown at me in the near future. Catapults + Praetorians ought to be enough, really. Azza just researched Construction this turn, suggesting that he's getting ready to build a pile of catapults. I need to be careful here, my NAP with him expires in 8t.

As I write this I get confirmation from Superjm that he accepts my proposed t110 NAP. Good news for me, both for the security and for confirmation that Superjm has no invasion plans. If I only have to worry about Azza in the near future I should be able to hold on to my cities easily.

Also, it seems that Azza hasn't started on the Sistine Chapel yet. waterbat vented a bit in chat about losing the Music artist due to turn order (we're awful about breaking diplo rules lately, especially now that we're not actively trying to kill each other), so he has a shot at it too.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Questions for xenu and cheetah:
1) If Azza doesn't start on SC right away, should I rush through to Music and burn a GE on it?
2) If Superjm looks like he's going for Taj Mahal (can spy on his cities to track production), should I burn the GE on it?

1. Up to you if it's worth it, I don't know that I'd make a rush for it.
2. If you think you could lose the Taj Mahal I would burn an engineer on it. It basically gives you two 1 man golden ages doing it that way. Not as nice as a free golden age but it's close. (plus the GPPs of course, but the GA is the obvious benefit).

If you do decide to use an engineer on the Taj, make sure you don't rush build it in a city where you have been slow building it. In that case I think the hammers get wasted. But if you rush it in another city and have been slow building it somewhere I think you get fail gold.

Aaaaand....can I get a shot of F5? I'm reading a lot of diplomacy here that indicates your defenses are made of NAPs. Is anyone building military in this game? I'm getting paranoid. Maybe I should look at a save one of these days

[Catwalk]

I guess I'll pass on SC. The synergy with AP would have been really nice and I could really use the culture, but I think I'm too far back in the race and I have better uses for 1000 beakers. Good point about rushing for failgold

Yeah, my defenses are composed mainly of NAPs. I had good power earlier on, then I quit building military after it became clear I wouldn't be able to invade Waterbat. Only one who's been building military is Xenon, and he's done absolutely nothing with it. Are you concerned that NAPs will be blatantly broken? Azza will likely be building military over the next 10t, though. I'm shifting my troops west to forestall aggression.